International sculpture workshop taking place at Galkot, Nepal from Feb 17

• Ram Bahadur Thapa

Baglung: An International Modern Sculpture Workshop will be taking place at Teuwa of Galkot municipality-5 in Nepal from coming Tuesday, February 17.

According to organizer Galkot Art Academy, infrastructures required for organizing the event have been developed and managerial preparations are going on.

Japanese artist Jun Ichiro Sugimoto has already landed in Kathmandu on the way to Baglung to attend the event. A total of 15 sculptors including 10 from abroad will be taking part in the event.

National flags of 11 countries have been placed in the event venue, said Academy chair Purna Bahadur Rana.

Materials needed for the workshop including stones have been readied. Arrangements are in place for food and accommodation for guests. Temporary residential tents have been set up. The artists will spend 15 days at Teuwa, exploring their skills. Another group of 10 assistant artists: five from Nepal and five from abroad will be joining the event to assist them.

The event aims to establish an open sculpture museum and research center of an international standard here.

The organizer plans to exhibit works of the participants in a museum in the future, the organizer said. General people including art lovers can visit the workshop. Praveen Kumar Shrestha, Om Khatri, Rajan Kafle, Buddha Chaudhary and Raju Pithakoti will be joining the event from Nepal. Foreign participants will be from China, Italy, France, Taiwan, Canada, India, Israel, Brazil and Ukraine including Japan.

As said by Academy, a total of 205 artists from home and abroad had applied to express their interests in joining the event, and the group was selected by an expert team which also comprised the Central Department of Fine Arts, Tribhuvan University associate professor Hridayballav Pandey. There are certain criteria that an artist shall follow during the event period.

They are not allowed to present political leaders, religious leaders, deities and culture of the respective country in their arts.
The recommended themes are human civilization, attire, nature and so on.

The preparations for the event had begun on the fiscal year 2073/ 74 BS. Around Rs 8.7 million has been spent so far the infrastructure development. It is expected to cost an additional 14.17 million to complete the event, the Academy said.

The Federal Government last fiscal year had allocated Rs five million and the Gandaki State had allocated Rs four million for the event.

Similarly, the Galkot municipality has ensured Rs. 300 thousand for it and House of Representatives member Devendra Poudel provided Rs one million from the budget of the electoral constituency and SA member Chandra Bahadur Budha ‘ Sagar’ assisted Rs 500 thousand for organizing the event.

The funds were achieved from the individual- level as well.

Local Bhim Kumari Kaucha contributed Rs 500, Purna Bahadur Ranabhat Rs 300 thousand, Til Bahadur Khatri Rs 300 thousand, Shanti Shreesh Rs 300 thousand, Dal Bahadur Pun Rs 110 thousand, Yam Bahadur Shrish Rs 100 thousand and Phamlal Nyure had provided Rs 100 thousand for organizing the event. The fund collection is going on spontaneously.

Locals Kul Bahadur Basnet, Jhanka Bahadur Basnet, Man Bahadur Khatri and Tika Kumari Khatri provided land worth Rs three million to organize the event. Gandaki state chief minister Prithvi Subba Gurung is scheduled to inaugurate the event.